(Un)Employment In Perspective

In Friday's final employment statistics release before the presidential election, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) did manage to keep the "official" U-3 unemployment rate below 8 percent, but just barely.
The BLS reported the October 2012, U-3 unemployment rate at 7.9 percent. As Rick Moran says, "... the economy added a middling 171,000 jobs." (By the way, the U-3 unemployment rate among blacks is 14.3 percent, yet Obama's job approval rating among blacks is 91 percent.)
But the U-6 unemployment rate, which is 14.6 percent, includes people who are working part-time but are available for full-time work, as well as those who said they want to work but can't find a job (marginally attached), as well as the long-term unemployed (discouraged workers). The BLS publishes monthly U-1 through U-6 unemployment rates. So, with (at least) two unemployment rates from which to choose, and the fact that the unemployment rates don't begin to tell the complete economic story, some further...(Read Full Post)